Jakob Vinther thought he was going to become a botanist until he found his first fossils at age 11 while attending summer camp in his home country of Denmark. Today he is an associate professor of macroevolution at the University of Bristol in England. His research focuses on pigments and other molecules preserved in the fossil record.
Fossil Pigments Reveal the True Colors of Dinosaurs
Long thought impossible, preservation of fossil pigments is allowing scientists to reconstruct extinct organisms with unprecedented accuracy—a feat that is yielding surprising insights into the lives they led